Anya Hindmarch MBE is an award-winning hand-bag designer. Anya began her career after noticing that a drawstring leather duffel bag was popular among Florentine women and so she borrowed $1,000 to import some of these bags to England. She immediately sold 500 and started her business aged just 19.

The business has grown from her first store, an intimate first floor shop on London’s Walton Street, to fifty-three shops worldwide, including two London flagships on Sloane Street and Bond Street.

Anya’s other projects have included ‘Be a Bag’, in which a personal photograph can be printed onto a bag; ‘I’m Not A Plastic Bag’, which aimed to reduce the use of plastic bags; a ten year collaboration with British Airways; a collaboration with Vanity Fair, designing their Oscars party bag; and a collaboration with Barbour, for whom her company has created four new styles.